was a notary at York, and Registrar of the Consistory Court of
the Minster. He could not of course have filled such as office, unless
he had been a Protestant. Edward Fawkes died in 1578, and was buried
January 17th in the Church of Saint Michael-le-Belfry, York. His widow,
whose maiden name was Edith Jackson, is said by some to have
subsequently married a zealous Roman Catholic, Mr Denis Bainbridge, of
Scotton; but Sir W. Wade gives the name of her second husband as "one
Foster, within three miles of York." She was living at the time of the
plot. Guy, who was baptised in Saint Michael's Church, April 16th,
1570, and educated at the Free School in the Horse Fair, did not become
a professed Papist until he was about sixteen years of age. He had a
step-brother of whom no more is known than that he belonged to one of
the Inns of Court in 1605. Guy was not eight years old when he lost his
father, who left him no patrimony beyond a small farm worth about 30
pounds per annum; he soon ran through this, sold the estate, and at the
age of twenty-three went abroad, living in Flanders for eight years,
during which time he was present at the taking of Calais by the Archduke
Albrecht. In 1601 he returned to England, with the reputation of one
"ready for any enterprise to further the faith." He now entered, along
with the Winters and the Wrights, into negotiations with Spain for a
fresh invasion of England, which was put a stop to by Elizabeth's death,
since the King of Spain declined to take up arms against his old ally,
King James. Fawkes's own statements in his examinations have been
proved to consist of such a mass of falsehood, that it is scarcely
possible to sift out the truth: and all that can be done is to accept as
fact such portions of his narrative as are either confirmed by other
witnesses, or seem likely to be true from circumstantial evidence. His
contradictions of his own previous assertions were perpetual, and where
confirmation is accessible, it sometimes proves the original statement,
but sometimes, and more frequently, the contradiction. This utter
disregard for truth prepares us to discount considerably the description
given of Fawkes by Greenway, as "a man of great piety, of exemplary
temperance, of mild and cheerful demeanour, an enemy of broils and
disputes, a faithful friend, and remarkable for his punctual attendance
upon religious observances." So far as facts can be sifted from
fiction, they seem